1. Field of Invention
The invention relates to a method and apparatus for screening pedestrians and vehicles for distinctive odors emitted by prohibited materials. More particularly the invention relates to a method and apparatus for collecting odor samples from pedestrians and vehicles and supplying the odor samples to a dog for identification of target odors of prohibited materials.
2. Description of the Related Art
There are many situations in which pedestrians or vehicles may be carrying materials which are prohibited from transport into or out of a designated area. Some examples are airports, sporting arenas and high security facilities. The prohibited materials may include, for example, explosives, drugs or even a product being stolen. Valuable products may be treated with a particular odor in order to easier to identify the products.
One method for screening for the materials is to individually search each pedestrian or vehicle for the prohibited material. Unfortunately, individual searching is extremely time-consuming and requires an inordinate number of searchers or an inordinate period of time.
It is known that many prohibited materials, such as explosives and drugs emit odors which are distinctive and can be detected in very small quantities by dogs which have been trained to identify such target odors. However, bringing a dog into direct contact with a large number of pedestrians or vehicles presents difficulties as well. Some people are fearful of dogs and others may cause harm to a highly trained dog or its handler. Traveling among a large number of vehicles may also create the potential for injury to a dog and/or its handler.
Accordingly, it is an object of the present invention to provide a method and apparatus for screening a plurality of pedestrians and/or vehicles for a prohibited material by collecting air samples from adjacent to the pedestrians or vehicles and transporting the samples to an enclosure containing a dog trained to identify the odor emitted by the prohibited material.